Washed
by coffeewriter1
Summary: A woman has only her shame. Jesus has the cure. Part of the "Encounters with the King" series. Rated T for some adult content.


She waited outside the door, anxious. Anxious because she knew what reception she was likely to receive.

She remembered her life. It had started out happy, the normal life of a girl in Galilee. She had a loving and godly family, and she grew up in the synagogue As a woman, she could not teach, but she had a sharp mind, and the ruler of the synagogue in her small town had taken her under his wing, showing her what he could.

She had then married- married a Pharisee, in fact, newly raised and looking for a wife. They had gotten along well, and had raised two boys. She was careful, the perfect wife for such an important man. He had gone out teaching one day, and had never come back. He was young, and no one could explain it.

After that, people began to look at her differently. She supposed she had become different. The grief had nearly broken her mind, and strange thoughts had sometimes come into her head. Then her boys had also died, of a fever that swept through the village. Now she was marked, and could no longer stay. Unable to deal with both the grief of losing her whole family and the shame of feeling like someone cursed, she left the village, moving over to the Gentile city of Tiberius.

A man had approached her on her first night. She had been huddling under a building, seeking escape from a powerful storm, and he had been kind. At least at first. Then she had found out what he was. She was still beautiful, and he had used her own beauty against her. Men, Jew and Gentile alike, wanted a woman to look at after their hard labors, and she had obliged.

Not willingly. Not when it had gone past looking. But the man who had taken her in was powerful, a merchant that had the ear of Herod himself. He had threatened to let Herod see her...and she knew all about that cursed family. Herod would do far more than look. So she had thrown off the last of her conscience, and become a woman of the night. Some of her clients were more gentle. Others less so. All had left her feeling empty. She had nothing left to give. She would give her body, but she had not even a particle more. If she ever had. Had it all been a dream? A life that was normal, with a husband and children?

Then she heard of the Teacher. The man who could heal the blind and raise the dead. She knew the prophecies of the Messiah. He had to be the one, the prophet long foretold, the one to deliver his people. If he could...if he could deliver the nation, could he deliver her? For the first time, hope began to stir in her heart.

Her owner had given her a jar of expensive perfume, in honor of being his best girl. She hated it, but it was the most precious thing she still owned. What better gift to give the Messiah? She wished she had something not touched by shame, but there was nothing left.

Her master had given her a day off. Capernaum was close by, and she heard the Messiah was there. Hardly daring to hope, she picked up her bottle of perfume and left. Asking directions got her whispers and mockery, but she was determined now. When she heard where Yeshua was, she nearly quailed. She knew whose house it was. He had...visited her. More than once. Did Yeshua know? She had a feeling he did...but she had to go through with this. She had to try.

Carefully, she opened the door. Immediately all eyes were on her. She dropped her head, seeing only feet. She felt naked, as naked as when she practiced her profession. If Simon was truly the host, he would know who she was. Indeed, he was there, and shot her a look full of venom. She was beneath him...or so he had said. Yet he had participated in an act of adultery. Did that make him any better? Did his wife know, standing there so proudly, arm around her husband? She couldn't, not if he was still alive. Nor if she was.

Feeling a little more bold, she picked out Yeshua at once. He sat at the head table, his disciples around him. She had heard of all of them- big, burly Peter, quiet John, alert Andrew, calculating Philip. But she had no time for them, but for their master. She slowly uncapped the bottle, and the smell of perfume filled the air.

Peter made to speak, but Yeshua put a hand on his arm, and he quieted. Walking slowly forward, she knelt at his feet. They hadn't been washed, she saw with shock. Where was the servant to wash his feet? Well, she had done far worse than take the role of a servant. Slowly, she knelt, pouring the perfume over his feet. She clutched them, feeling the tears come at last. She wanted to know so much- where was he when all had been taken from her? Where had he been when people had treated her worse than the dirt that caked those leather feet? Still, she loved him. Loved him for his compassion and mercy, in desperate hope he could do the same for her. She couldn't stop crying, and he tears were the only sound in that suddenly still room.

Finally, her tears stopped. His feet were wet, and there was nothing to dry them with. Seized by a sudden impulse, she unbound her hair. She did it only when serving a client, and she knew the significance of what she was doing. She was serving Yeshua in the only way she knew. Taking her beautiful black tresses, he wiped Yeshua's feet carefully. There was a wound there, and scars from miles of walking. She touched the wound gently. A thorn, it looked like, had entered his foot. She wished she could do something for it, as she had done for her boys when they had come in from their play, or her husband as he returned from teaching the Law.

But nothing could be done for it now. Carefully, she finished drying his feet and bound her hair up. She still couldn't meet his eyes. What would he say? She did not have long to wait.

"Simon, I have a question for you," he said. His voice was deep and commanding, but yet tender, the voice of a strong father, and she felt her heart seize. It was almost like her own father's voice.

"Ask, Teacher," said the voice she knew so well.

"A man owed much money, while another man owed little. The master to which they were indebted forgave them both. Tell me, Simon, who will love him more?"

"The one who was forgiven more," Simon said, voice suddenly wary.

Now Yeshua's voice cracked like a whip. "You never offered me water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears. You never offered me a towel to dry them, but she has dried them with her hair. You never offered me a kiss, but she has never stopped kissing my feet. You never anointed my head with oil, but she had poured perfume on my feet."

The woman froze. So...Simon had done as he always had, and made himself the center, while neglecting what was most important. So unlike her husband, who was patient and kind, always with a word to say to those who needed it. Yeshua was more like her husband, and had dared to praise her. Why? Why should he? Didn't he know who she was?

"Her sins, and there are many, have been forgiven, so she loves much. But those who have been forgiven little love little."

Oh, he knew. Knew of Simon's part, and hers, yet she had been forgiven, while he had not. . That tone was a tone of rebuke. A calloused hand passed her eyes to touch her under the chin. She was slowly raised back to her feet, and looked in Yeshua's eyes. They were kind and gentle, pools of compassion.

"Follow me," he said.

"Do you mean?" she spoke for the first time since coming to the house, her voice raw with weeping.

"I do," Yeshua said. "Follow me, beloved. Follow me."

Later, she would reflect that though she had washed his feet, he had done far more for her. He had washed her clean when no one else possibly could. For that, she would follow him forever.

 **A/N: Like any religious order, there was good and bad among the Pharisees. I wanted to make a point of that by showing a good, righteous Pharisee married to a good woman. Simon, though, from the little we know of him, was a hypocrite of the first order. I have no doubt that if he could all but ignore the One he called Teacher, he could also violate his wedding vows.**

 **It would be logical that this woman would follow Yeshua. Where else could she go? The Bible does state that there were women who served Christ while he traveled, and I think she may have been one of that number.**

 **As an aside, human trafficking is still a huge problem today. Please, please, be part of the solution, not the problem. Respect toward women, and toward the innocent, would be a great step in the right direction! Let's show some, yeah?**


End file.
